The Fundamentals

Accurately plotting the room is essential. Whether in CAD or on graph paper, the room outline forms the basis of your design. It is not just the overall room dimensions that matter. Other essential features of a room that need to be considered are:

Door(s)
Windows
Radiators (although these can potentially be moved without too much disruption)

Where the services are positioned in the room. This is often critical. The electrics are the easiest to move. The plumbing is harder, especially the 40mm plastic waste pipes that feeds into a drain. Find out where your drains are. This might dictate where your sinks, suction and dental chair can be positioned. Our Resources Page has some scaled graph paper to make plotting a room a bit easier.

If the room will be a Dental Surgery the considerations are:
• What equipment is going into the room: chair, delivery system, x-ray etc?
• What type of work will the dentist / hygienist be going in the room?
 

If the room will be a Decontamination Room / Local Decontamination Unit (LDU) the considerations are:
• How many surgeries is the room serving?
• What equipment is going into the room?
 
Once these fundamental questions have been answered, the process of designing the room becomes much easier.